A Present of Family Significance and a new approach.

Here I am again and as promised here is the present that has been received by my very dear cousin in the North of England; this is where most of my family live. It was my mother who moved to the south when she married my Dad, he was very much a Londoner born and bred.

However the significance of this present as I mentioned above is that this represents the home my mother grew up in. Yes a proper Romany bow topped Wagon. My Grand dad was a true Romany you see. I don't mean new age travellers. We are talking about the early part of the last century. My Grandparents were born in the late 1800's Some people would feel ashamed of admitting these kind of roots. I am very proud of my heritage. My mother came through some very tough times, and survived two world wars and even worse the great depression. She taught me how to be a survivor and how to make do and mend. She taught me a lot of things that many today would be grateful to know. So yes, I am proud of being half Romany. Even though I grew up in a house that my mother fought hard to buy for herself. I will never forget my roots.

My cousin said she is so pleased with this, she has it on her wall amongst all the family photos, isn't that wonderful. The front of it sort of represents the idea of looking out from a wagon on to the view of a wagon itself. It took me many hours to make this, it is made from my own hand dyed and hand made felt and all of it is hand embroidered with a lot of hand painted variegated silk.

As usual click on the pictures for a closer view.

This next piece is a new approach for me. This is what I recognise as mixed media; for me anyway. First I made a clay circle, quite small. I made a series of small holes equally spaced around the edge; these can't be seen as the embroidery covers these well. The idea was to create a frame for this pendent so that it would hang nicely. The embroidery is a free hand design/stitch doodle; this is what I might call them in future. I feel that working with very fine silk in this manner is very pleasing. I am planning to make a series of these pendents in different colours; and maybe shapes too. who knows. Well that's it for now folks. Be back soon. Cheers and thanks for dropping by. Tricia x